Jai jawan Jai kishaan -A slogan that was made popular by Lal Bahadur Shastri. How relevant it is with reference to independence of a Nation! Independence loses its meaning if you cannot defend your freedom and you lose your respect and dignity  the day you have to beg for your food for sustenance.

let glory be yours

Today we dedicate the day and also our issue to the strongest pillars of our nation- our Jawans and the Kishaans

While one protects, the other sustains

without whom we wouldn’t be what we are

In the line of fire

A Proud Free Country!

Path of fire

The sky is the limit!

A green future

Only Pride, No Prejudice

May the country progress and come out in flying colours

Photo Credits- Maina, G. Taye, Angshuman .

As were discussing about the Editorial, for this issue, we got to know that we don’t know what does Independence Day mean to us. Although, some of us had some memories about the celebration of Independence Day, it seemed to us like ages since we last celebrated Independence Day. Sankhya complained that she never got to celebrate Independence Day the way it should be done. Since the time she remembers, the day has been called Bandh and people stay indoors to avoid any problems. As a child I remember, how we used to love this day, we had to go to school without any books and sweets were distributed to us. The first half of the day went with the celebrations and the second half went discussing the games and celebrations. But, sadly many organizations call a Bandh on this day for the last 20 years. The older generation complains that we don’t value our independece, but how could we value something we haven’t experienced.

The celebrations have only become a kind of noise. We would enjoy them only when we really get that Freedom and mark my words, we will treasure it more than anyone ever dreamt of.

Hoping for a better future,

Signing Off,

Pramathesh Borkotoky

Exec. Editor,
Fried Eye

Mail me at pramathesh@friedeye.com

India Rocks! A phrase I come across quite often. A phrase people use when a person is happy . A happy satisfied person . Happy and satisfied with India. But again there are many a time when there is quite a lot of India bashing happening too.What is the general picture? Satisfied or Dissatisfied? On this independence day We at fried eye decided to conduct a poll to see what exactly do people think? India Rocks? Or India in a rocky ground? This is here what India thinks. The question- what does independence and indipendence day mean to you? Evoked the following responses from our responders picked up from among different strata and age group of people.

Dr Jayati – Independence day? What does a single day of celebration mean when there is a static thought through out the year- India is the most independent country which follows independence to the T. Everywhere you look people peeing, spitting , abusing … Independence to break all rules , all norms, Independence to trash everything- from movies books sports politics- without giving a thought to consequences. Independence to be heard whenever you feel like speaking. Independence to criticise even if you don’t have the capability to produce tenth of that result yourself. Am I being sarcastic? I don’t know about that, but yes I am behaving independently and I will be lying if I say I don’t enjoy this freedom.
Srajan- ( Tenth standard student)- Independence? You are asking a teenager what Independence means? An Indian teenager? In Indian tradition, a teenager has to imagine the meaning of Independence after reading it in Wikipedia. We are called the future of our country , but at home or schools or public places, how much of our opinion is being asked for. It is only in isolated polls as yours do they bother to voice our thoughts. As for the significance of Independence day , well its more commercialization in the name of celebrations and awareness. Look at the Malls, Complexes shamelessly promoting their products in the name of Independence day without even bothering to instill an iota of Patriotism. Do you really see any Patriotism these days? We just come to hear about it in movies and books.

Rupali – A BE student- Independence and Independence day – though I am not much into demonstration , but deep in my heart this as an Ideology was very dear to me, very important to me. It told me about the struggles and fight of those people who dared to be different and had the heart to fight for what they believed and wanted for themselves and for the next generation. Over and above a fight for Independence It was a fight against the power system which was not only corrupt but also unfair, unjust and cruel too. ( mind you, if they had been a just and a fair system, I don’t think people would have bothered much about freedom) But sadly , now the power system has again shifted to such a state even after being that of an Independent country

Ganga –(maid) (smilingly shyly) There is a parade. They fly kites. Yes they drove away the Angrez on this day. Aur bas kya bolu!
Het raam Rickshaw wala- Hamare liye koi Azaadi nahin hai .. . ( there is no freedom for us We still struggle. We still suffer. We are still neglected)

Leo – A techie from Bangalore and an Avid blogger who blogs at http://leonnyes.wordpress.com had this to say.
Independence, that word says we’re self reliant.. but still, no one is completely independent I feel. We all rely on someone else for something or the other in life.. be it our parents, or our better half, or our friends.. sometimes even strangers.. that word means we try our best to depend on ourselves more than we depend on these people.. We try to make our own decisions.. make our own way in life… like, we can take care of ourselves.. yet not being alone in that care.

Independence Day, well, firstly it means a holiday to me. Used to be from school, then from college, now from work. But on a wider perspective if you see, India is not really independent, or free. We can’t really take our own decisions, some decisions are forced on us, and the echo of silence goes unheard. There are people out there who aren’t free.. women who are abused, and killed in the name of honor.. farmers who kill themselves because the “governments” decision are forced on them, the common man who is held captive to the rising economy.. babies which die without even seeing the first light.. cruel murders which weren’t even the victim’s fault.. a hefty fine for us breaking the smallest rule whereas the “government” authorities can break it and they escape scot-free.. Independence Day is not yet true in all respects.. we’re just free of the British ruling us.. only who rules has changed, the ruling has not… and if a blind eye continues to be cast on such notions, India will not be truly independent in the sense of the word.

Gyanban- A blogger from Singapore shared his thoughts with us. He blogs in www.gyanban.com

It started as a holiday,then changed to a dry day, moved on swiftly to a long weekend plan,then a family outing…

Independence day is an uncomfortable reminder to me – of how little I am doing for my country,and how much I’ve grown to extract from it. Being in a foreign land,I realise every bit of freedom that my country offered and how little I valued it when I was in India.

As a principle I have stopped questioning how my country is being run…I will question again, when I am doing something about it.

Till then I am thankful and will be eternally grateful to those who chose to take responsibility.
And Again as I said-What was once a single dream for thousands of years is a harsh reality now of 63 years.

The idea is to find a balance.No form of extremism is good for any one in this planet – whether it is about a thought,action or culture.Not once dare I say it is easy.But it is the right direction…..at least till the current mass consensus lasts.!

A few weekends back, in one of those ‘girls night out’s, we ended up coming back to my place and talking our way till daylight and early bird calls made us give up. Which can only mean that a lot of the serious insights and confessions that we shared with each other in our half-drunken half-dazed state of mind centered mostly around the best shoe sales in the city, worst dates we had in the past years, the creepiest guy in office (who had coincidentally hit on each of us with the same one-liners…not knowing we might have the opportunity to autopsy each of them at 3am on a Friday night), broken relationships (ours’ and others), weird eccentric bosses (ours’ and others), spouses (ours and others)….and shoe sales again …you get the picture.

But somewhere between a really great online snitch and the best pay master in consultancy (which also provides free diet coke vends and chocolate doughnuts near each bay!!) we discussed something that sets the tone for this note today. As 20-something girls in a society that has created for the past many many years….model definitions of how cultured, well groomed, perfectly brought-up women should behave and what should ideally be their priorities in each stage of life, we knew exactly what and how we were expected to contribute to it….now don’t judge this as a regressive, cynical, drunken, sleep deprived thought at 4am on a Saturday morning….but let me tell you what each of us felt we wanted to achieve, what each of us had dreamt of as our most beautiful gifts to the parents (and the support system closest to us) who have reared their daughters with great love and pride. To create amazing homes and a beautiful environment for the smart kids that we will bear and nourish with our really handsome husbands who will take care of our each whim and idiosyncrasy. We really want to love and be loved, and in the process make a home that we can call our own. That’s it. That was our dream.

Something hit me. In this day and age, we only associate these kinds of thoughts with a certain class of society that has not yet opened their eyes to the fact that the success or failure of a woman’s life does not depend on her marital status or her ‘child bearing qualities’ any more. I mean, by any chance if one of my nosy relatives took it upon her societal responsibilities to give me a sermon on how getting married to a presentable, comparatively successful banker was the best thing that I could have done for myself and that now, I need to ‘procreate’ to seal the deal, I would have laughed hard! And not just I, my family and friends too would have joined me in the fun! But that night, I learnt a secret. I wanted it for myself, the whole she-bang. I wanted the grand duo – marriage and kids – more than I wanted the best paying job with a doughnut perk! And not just me….all my girlfriends, who earn figures that can take care of their eccentric sale binges, home loans, wedding funds for themselves and their kid bothers and sisters, vacations and night-outs forever and ever….not once requiring to depend on a strong male figure in their lives to take care of the basic and not-so-basic stuff. But we wanted it like never before. We wanted it nonetheless….

This brings me onto how today, when I decided to write down how I felt about my country’s independence, I had this strange urge to draw the fine line that differentiated the state of being independent and the state of being free. Silly when I think how an utterly random girly conversation could spur on this thought. But yes, one thing you do need to agree on is that I, being born a woman, in that particular state of India that people still think is a part of a neighborhood nation, at a time when women engineers consisted of just 1/7th of the college population, have made that remarkable journey from being educated to be a successful partner to my very capable significant male half to being a completely independent entity who can support a family on her own if she wanted to or if ever needed emerged. And hence I, have a unique right (and of course that very unique perspective) to reflect on freedom.

It’s been 63 years of our country being independent. And it’s been a mixed bag of goodies. We were so royally exploited for so long that we forgot for some time how to make it on our own….but we got English, our biggest export! We went through the worst partition ever, but we learnt how to cultivate the best quality tea (and yes, we still impersonate our dear fathers by drinking it with a lot of milk and sugar just like they did in front of us for 200 years). Our palaces were looted and many centuries of architecture destroyed whimsically, but they did give us a common rule for the first time in the history of our nation. We actually became a single entity….a united country. We might have been majorly hit and might have lost some very solid years of the great Indian cultural and intellectual evolution, but then we found IT and I guess it makes up for a lot of lost ground! And let me repeat it…63 years…of us being independent. So here’s where I feel cheated…that despite being a sovereign, autonomous, self-dependent country for so long….it still feels as if we are fighting something. It is as if we have not yet attained those levels of freedom in thought and in deed, that would make us the most intelligent, successful and prosperous race in the world. Sad thing is – we all know we have it in us, and we have also kind of succumbed to the fact that we might end up never reaching those heights. Scary, isn’t it?

For all the freedom of speech and thought that we brag about, we are still the most conservative bunch of humans in terms of our societal norms. We crack jokes that could be very funny over a glass of vodka but very racial otherwise. We immediately jump to pre-conceived notions the moment a person identifies himself or herself from a particular part of the country. We expect to get our daughters married off to some nice family with a nice ‘surname’ within the same caste and language. And yes, it better be within the ‘expiry date’ or else the dowry calculations change remarkably. And no matter how educated or how successful, we still need to prove that our daughters are indeed ‘beautiful, fair complexioned, from good family, and has cooking and knitting skills’. And last but not the least, we are the only country that boasts of the ‘honest bribe’. The battles that we fight each day are very unique to us and no godfather can lead us to light this time around.

Coming back to my girls’ night out, this is what struck me. That despite having proven my self worth to myself time and again, my mental make-up still needs a different definition of success. I am taken back to my wedding day, when I was ‘given away’ from my father to my husband, who swore in front of the holy fire to protect me in future just as my father had done in the past. I keep thinking of my best friend, who is a charming, intelligent and highly independent and successful woman in her own right, but is plagued constantly by the thought that her parents are not getting a suitable groom for her that fits the bill on caste, language and business class…and it’s getting late!

So let me ask this question again. We are independent, and we have been since the British left us. But are we really free?

This issue of Fried Eye happens to come out on quite a day. Apart from being the 63rd Indian Independence day, the day also happens to complete 35 years of presence of Sholay in our lives. The film released on August 15, 1975. Interestingly there are many known and unknown stories that have been a part of the Sholay journey.

Even as people today are struggling to get budgets right and doing everything possible to keep business sensibilities intact, GP Sippy backed his son Ramesh Sippy as the latter went about shooting the film. Sholay was supposed to be an expensive film initially budgeted at Rs 1.5 crore. But by the time it was complete the budget had gone up to Rs 3 crore. While Ramesh Sippy admits that he did get nervous about the budget his father blindly trusted his son. “The film would have never been possible if the producer was not my father. He agreed on spending more money in love for his son!” Sippy told me once.

When Sholay released it was quickly packed away by the critics saying it was a bombastic mistake on GP Sippy’s part to invest such huge money on a movie which was neither Indian nor western. Sholay was indeed heavily inspired by movies like Akira Kurosawa’s Roshomon and John Sturges’ The Magnificent Seven. The film was to become a flop. The biggest magazine slammed Sholay. In fact a trade analyst BK Adarsh, the father of now famous Taran Adarsh, had run a series of articles in his magazine for six weeks dissecting the movie and stating why it would be the colossal failure in Indian filmdom. Funnily enough even as the series came to an end, the film gathered pace at the box office – a pace that didn’t slow down for over a year. The movie went on to become the biggest hit of Bollywood ever and also ran at continuously at the Minerva theatre (Mumbai) for over five years, breaking all previous records.

Today Sholay stands tall among all multi-star movies. It made a small village called Ramanagara in Karnataka a tourist location, it gave directors like Ram Gopal Varma learning’s of a life time and has given audiences like us a great source of entertainment and inspiration. This is probably one film which probably every average Indian must have watched at least once.

Looking back at it the man behind Sholay – Ramesh Sippy admits, “It’s a lot of mixed feelings. It feels great, humbling and frightening. Frightening because once you have created something like this, it’s very difficult to recreate it. To take a film to that level that it becomes a myth and a part of India psyche, where all the characters have become legends… you don’t know. You certainly can’t plan a phenomenon.” How true is that! And who better to comment on the movie than Rajnikanth – one of the biggest stars of India cinema ever. “Sholay worked not because of one star or the huge budget for those times. Sholay worked because of the story and the connect with the audience, something that still exists and promises not to wither,” he says. Ram Gopal Varma concludes saying, “Why is it that Sholay doesn’t age? It just seems to stand still at the “pause” button of a Cinematic era for the last 35 years without aging one bit and I won’t be surprised if it stays that way for still another 35 years if not another 70 years.”

Some trivia about Sholay

1) Shatrughan Sinha was to play the character of Jai before Amitabh Bachchan stepped in on Dharmendra’s recommendation.

2) Danny Danzongpa was approached play Gabbar Singh but he declined the offer as he was doing another movie where he played a bandit.

3) Manmohan Desai and not Ramesh Sippy was not first director that writers Salim-Javed approached with the idea of the film.

4) Best Film in last 50 years from Filmfare, the same magazine which trashed the film when it released.

5) Held the record of biggest grosser for 15 years before Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge beat it.

6) Got just one award – The best editing award in the year of release.

7) The village Ramgarh was created in a village called Ramanagaram which lies between Bengaluru and Mysore.

8 ) The first schedule of the movie had to be cancelled as it was raining in Karnataka and it became impossible to shoot in the weather

9) It is referred to as the first Indian movie with stereophonic soundtrack. No earlier history of stereophonic sound is recorded in Bollywood.

10) It ran for 286 weeks straight (more than five years) in the Minerva theatre of Mumbai.

11) Gabbar Singh was modeled on a real-life dacoit of the same name who menaced the villages around Gwalior in the 1950s. He terrorized the local police. Any policeman captured by the real Gabbar Singh had his ears and nose cut off, and was then released as an object lesson to other policemen.

A battle lost
A soldier left forlorn
Before the gates of a kingdom
Never to be known
The treasures within
Beyond reach
Watching in the most savage of lands
As dismay sets in
Gone the strength of the song
Mourn the battle never won

On this day ,as always I feel
The presence of a beautiful mother,
She is lovely as everyday I see
The beauty that she bestows on me.
This callouseness of man who smears blood,
Chops off her green,or in greed pierces her heart.
She is hurt I know: but she still bestows love that I can show.
On this special day, I silently pledge
To spread her tenderness, and humanity .
To share her pretty face that on my walk of life that I percieve.
Vandemataram!

They come and stare,
At the barrenness of my eyes..
Where nothing is remained with me..
Other than the vicious filth.
My soul surrendered to the soil,
That solaces me in her clinch,
Reminding me of the day’s bygone,
When lovers used to sit by me,
Holding their hands and singing,
The eternal melodies of love,
Birds relished their thirst,
Drinking my water as wine,
And played in my lap,
As they were my child.
While the trees nourished their beauty,
Gazing at my heart as their mirror,
Heaven cried upon my shoulders,
Lending me his tears,
Along with his blessings on me.
And now that I’ve grown old and ugly,
They turn off their sombre faces,
Letting me cry upon my emptiness

-Bibhuti Borkotoky
Freelance Writer

When I was of age 7 years, a momentous day is still fresh in my memory. Every home were decorated with earthen lamp, and people enjoyed fireworks as if it was Deepawali. The entire country was in festive mood on that day and one could see the ecstatic expression in each face.
That momentous day was none other than 15th of August 1947. India got Independence after a long after a long struggle against the British. At that moment, I did not know the meaning of Independence Day, so I simply joined the celebrations.
Today, when I look back, I can realise that those thousands of lamps were lighted in the memory of those who sacrificed their lives for our freedom and themselves could not live to see the light of the day for which they fought.
Today, it is impossible to imagine how Gandhiji brought independence through the principle of non-violence with the help of his followers. Or the people who sacrificed their lives in the organised massacre of Patharughat which was repeated 26 years after in Jalianwalabagh, by the British. Among the thousands of martyrs in the freedom movement in Assam, we must remember the great heroes like Moniram Dewan, Piyali Baruah, Kushal Konwar, Kamala Miri whe were hanged and Kanaklata who took bullets bravely in her chest while trying unfurl the Indian National Flag.
On this day, I salute the great martyrs who made it possible that we breath in free air and live a great life.

Well, Glee has been all over the place this summer with people raving about the music over and over again, and I thought it would be nice to put in my words as well. Specially since I have been losing sleep over watching episode after episode of the first season and not resting until I had finished watching it completely, and also going on ad nauseum about the songs. The plot is kind of loose, based on the chronicles of a high school Spanish teacher who takes charge of the school’s Glee Club with the sole intention of restoring its former glory, and towards the third episode I was wondering when the actual story would start. But then again, by then, I was already hooked to the admittedly amazing performances in the show, with some of the songs being recreated as surprisingly better versions of the original ones. Now this is not the place for me to lament on how I wish they would include more songs and try less to involve us in the lame storyline, so I will keep it to myself and just move on to the best part. The songs.

The first song that caught my attention was “Don’t Stop Believing”, which also made it to the Top UK 40 singles that I religiously follow. Although I hadn’t heard the original song by Journey, it made for a catchy number with all the synchronized supporting vocals. Another of my favorites has to be “Dancing With Myself”, and this is one song I love way better than the Billy Idol original. Maybe it has also to do with the way the song has been placed just right in that episode (Kevin McHale in a wheelchair singing all by himself), but it kind of stayed back with me. Amber Riley (playing Mercedes Jones) does an amazing job out of “Hate On Me”, originally by Jill Scott, and add to it the fact that the spirit of the song goes just right with the situation. Well, the Beatles may hate me for saying this, but I also prefer the spicier perkier version of “Hello Goodbye” than the classic old one. And “Imagine” almost had me choking and getting goosebumps.

I specially loved that episode where they dedicated it to Madonna, and truth be admitted that was the first time I had listened to Madonna’s songs. Maybe watching it made me realize that I had missed out on a whole cult that represented empowerment among other things, but “Like A Virgin” and “4 Minutes” made me sit up and take note. So much that I downloaded the whole of Madonna’s albums right after it. The dance routine of the cheerleaders to “Ray Of Light” is also noteworthy. As for the “Vogue” routine, well, let’s just say I found that one kind of funny. Which reminds me of Jane Lynch (who plays the tough Sue Sylvester) in another song “Physical” with Olivia Newton-John, and snigger all you want to, but I have been humming that song under my breath all the time for quite some time now. I could come up with so many more songs like this! “Don’t Rain On My Parade” sung by Lea Michele (who plays Rachael Berry), “Gold Digger” where Matthew Morrison (as Will Schuester, the teacher) raps to near perfection and “Smile” are just a few because I couldn’t help mentioning them.

And finally, the one song that has made me wonder over and over again about how anyone could come up with something so new it makes you wonder if there are traces of the old song: Poker Face. The original by Lady GaGa (who is like this queen of theatricality) is quite upbeat and for the lack of a better word, metallic and totally techno. And the Lea Michele and Indina Menzel version is anything but it. It took me quite some time to even relate the song to the Lady GaGa number, and what with the piano and the somber rhythm, it was like the song has undergone a complete makeover. Come to think of it that’s what I love about the Glee songs; I love the way the Glee cast play and toy and experiment with the songs. It’s kind of like ripping up a song open to know what it’s like inside, and then stuffing it with just the right flavors to come up with something innovative and refreshingly new without losing the old touch.

However, the one part that made me forgive Glee for putting me through lameness all the while was the last episode where the “Vocal Adrenaline”, a Glee club from a different school performs Bohemian Rhapsody. I had my doubts if they could even come close to creating magic the way Queen had done with that song, but I was pleasantly surprised that the song exceeded my expectations. And what took my breath away was how they synchronized the song to go with a parallel scene where the character Quinn Fabray was having a baby. Timing, and immaculate timing at that, was what makes the scene leave a lasting impression in your mind.

Enough of the Glee overload already. Let’s just say I am looking forward to the next season, and no, don’t get me wrong. I am not interested in knowing if the Glee club make it to the Regionals and win them or not the next time. But yes, I am waiting to hear more songs being dissected and tugged and pulled to sound just right. So here’s to innovation, here’s to bringing in the old to the new, and here’s to the music of Glee!